Justice Department Sues D.C. Over Semi-Automatic Firearms Ban
The Department of Justice has launched a sweeping constitutional challenge against the District of Columbia, filing what it describes as a landmark lawsuit accusing the city of openly violating the Second Amendment through an effective ban on widely owned semi-automatic firearms.
Filed Monday by the DOJ’s newly created Second Amendment Section, the lawsuit targets D.C.’s firearm registration scheme, which mandates registration for all guns while simultaneously barring the registration of AR-15 rifles and other commonly owned semi-automatic weapons. In practice, the policy renders those firearms illegal within city limits—despite long-standing Supreme Court precedent to the contrary.
“MPD’s current pattern and practice of refusing to register protected firearms is forcing residents to sue to protect their rights and to risk facing wrongful arrest for lawfully possessing protected firearms,” the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi did not mince words, calling the District’s policies a direct assault on the Constitution and the rights of law-abiding Americans.
“Washington, D.C.’s ban on some of America’s most popular firearms is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment,” Bondi said. “Living in our nation’s capital should not preclude law-abiding citizens from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
The case marks the first major enforcement action by the DOJ’s Second Amendment Section, which was established earlier this year following a directive from President Donald Trump as part of his administration’s broader effort to ensure state and local compliance with constitutional guarantees.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who oversees the Civil Rights Division, said the filing reflects a renewed federal resolve to defend individual gun rights against hostile local governments.
“This Civil Rights Division will defend American citizens from unconstitutional restrictions of commonly used firearms,” Dhillon said. “The newly established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to ensure that the very rights D.C. resident Mr. Heller secured 17 years ago are enforced today — and that all law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes may do so.”
At the heart of the DOJ’s complaint is the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down the city’s handgun ban and affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms in the home for self-defense.
That case originated in 2003 when Richard Heller, a D.C. special police officer, sued the city after being denied permission to own a handgun for personal protection. The Court’s narrow 5–4 ruling reshaped Second Amendment jurisprudence and remains one of the most consequential constitutional decisions in modern history.
Yet according to the DOJ, D.C. has spent the years since quietly circumventing that ruling.
“Unfortunately, today, the District still prevents ownership of these very same weapons through a pattern and practice of broadly blocking gun registration,” the DOJ said. “Law-abiding citizens throughout our nation’s capital are facing wrongful arrests due to the enforcement of unconstitutional laws.”
While D.C. officials have declined to comment on the pending litigation, the city’s strict gun control regime—long championed by local Democrats—has been a persistent source of conflict with Republican administrations. Although the District requires all firearms to be registered with the Metropolitan Police Department, its municipal code prohibits the registration of semi-automatic rifles and numerous handguns that fall squarely within the Supreme Court’s “common use” standard established in Heller.
Gun rights advocates have argued for years that D.C.’s registration system was designed to nullify Heller in practice. With this lawsuit, the federal government has now formally endorsed that view, accusing the city of continuing to “openly defy the Supreme Court’s precedent.”
The case also signals a more aggressive phase in President Trump’s second-term agenda to reassert federal authority in defending constitutional freedoms. Since returning to office, Trump has directed federal agencies to confront what he has labeled “lawless blue-state restrictions” on core rights, including gun ownership, free speech, and religious liberty.
Bondi said the lawsuit sends a clear message far beyond Washington, D.C.
“Every American has the right to self-defense,” she said. “The Constitution doesn’t end where city limits begin.”
The Metropolitan Police Department has already faced multiple legal challenges over its enforcement of D.C.’s gun laws, including allegations that individuals legally purchasing firearms in other states were wrongfully arrested upon entering the District.
As the case moves forward, the DOJ is encouraging D.C. residents who believe they were improperly denied firearm registrations or subjected to unconstitutional enforcement to submit complaints through the Second Amendment Section’s online portal.